Down regulation of autophagy contributes to alterations in the expression of apoptosis-associated proteins in HepG2 cells following decreasing treatment with GAs. (A) Expression of autophagy-associated proteinsBeclin-1 and LC3 following3-MA treatment. The expression levels of the autophagy-associated proteins Beclin-1 and LC3 were decreased in the cells that underwent3-MA treatment compared with the control group (*P<0.05). (B) The expression of the apoptosis-associated proteins caspase-3 and-9 in the GAs group was increased compared with the GAs+3-MA group and the control group (*P<0.05; the P-value of each two groups are depicted in Table II). (C) Expression of autophagy-associated protein Beclin-1 and LC3 following siRNA treatment. The expression levels of the autophagy-associated proteins Beclin-1 and LC3 were decreased in cells following siRNA treatment, compared with the control group (*P<0.05). (D) The expression of apoptosis-associated proteins caspase-3, −8 and −9 in the GAs group increased compared with those in the GAs+siRNA group or the control group (*P<0.05; the P-value of each two groups are depicted in Table III). GAs, ginkgolic acids; LC3, microtubule-associated protein 1A/1B-light chain 3; 3-MA, 3-Methyladenine; siRNA, small interfering RNA.